Effexor XR and psychiatrist

I was also on Effexor XR at 175mg/day for a couple of years. I weaned off of it and felt all the horrible side effects too. All I can say is if you are cleared by your psychiatrist to get off this drug, just hang in there. Once it's out of your system you'll be fine. It does end so don't give up!

I suffered from major depression last spring. The worse in my life ever, with a lot of anxiety.
I have been on Effexor XR 75 mg for 6 months. My main problems are :
LOW SEX DRIVE 9could also be from the birth control pill), SHORT TERM MEMORY PROBLEMS (a bad one), DIZZINESS.
My doctor felt that i needed to increase to 150mg because she thought i still had problems (like lack of motivation and negative thoughts): we started by adding 37.5mg extra. By day 2 or 3 of this increase, I was waking up constantly during the night, and felt extremely agitated. Like I would crawl right out of my skin. I couldn't lie still and moved about a lot in my bed, especially my legs. By day 6 of this increase, my anxiety was SO BAD, I was back to nearly the same anxiety I had in the spring before starting treatment. BE CAREFUL about increasing your dosage. TELL SOMEONE to watch if your mood changes and to take you to the ER if necessary. thank goodness I didn't need to go.
I now take fish oil (omega 3) and within a couple months of that, I noticed that my anger/impulsive and concentration seemed better. I am also going off the birth control pill this month 9ortho tri cyclen lo). I brought it up to my GP, to a psychiatrist and to my opharmacist that I was depressed and could there be a link with the birth control pills and they all said "I don't think so."; "no", "very unlikely". Well my major depression, MAJOR MOOD FLUCTUATIONS, anxiety and ANGER control problems all started with the beginning of the birth control pill.